Do You Have Many Friends On Facebook?

Recent research suggests that people who have more pals on FB are materialists

A recent study has found that materialists have more friends on Facebook as compared to people who are less interested in possessions.

The study, published in the journal Heliyon, found that materialists have the need to constantly compare themselves with others on social media platforms. In doing so, they view their friends as “digital objects” and tend to use social media more extensively. They use social media as a tool to increase their ‘possessions’.

Phillip Ozimek and his team of researchers from Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany collected data from an online survey carried out on 242 Facebook users. They found strong correlations between materialism and intense Facebook activity. They conducted the same research on another set of 289 FB users and came to the same conclusion.

In an attempt to provide an explanation for the results of the research, the scientists developed a theory called ‘The Social Online Self-Regulation Theory’, which states that people use social media as a tool to achieve their goals.

The team also suggested that social media need not always be seen in a negative light; they assume people use these platforms to have fun and feel good as well. “Social media platforms are not that different from other activities – they are functional tools for people who want to attain goals, and some might have negative consequences for them or society,” Ozimek said.